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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28144725">Three, Two, One...</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/wiseorfool/pseuds/wiseorfool'>wiseorfool</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dororo (Anime 2019)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Character Study, Family Reunion, Found Family, Gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 16:13:44</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,777</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28144725</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/wiseorfool/pseuds/wiseorfool</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>There was a time when Tahoumaru knew exactly who he was, who he was meant to be, and all the things he deserved.  That time is gone and has left pain and hesitation in its wake, but these are temporary struggles.  He needs only to find the path through them.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Yuletide 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Three, Two, One...</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cerberusia/gifts">Cerberusia</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>His brother, this beast, this demon, Hyakkimaru, has taken everything from him.  His birthright, his beloved companions, his father, his mother – even his mother's face.  Tahoumaru is his father's son, but Hyakkimaru is wholly their mother's child, and truth be told, that is a knowledge more painful than nearly any other Tahoumaru can imagine.  His mother may have loved him, but she never longed for him the way she longs for the demon child who has her eyes.  Her lovely, high cheekbones.  The elegant curve of her eyebrows.</p><p>The hatred burns in Tahoumaru the way the fire burned around him and he lets it.  To do otherwise, to allow grief even the slightest foothold, may prove his undoing.  Instead, he tells himself that he will tear Hyakkimaru to pieces like the demons should have done – wanted to do –  so many years ago.  He will cut his brother open.</p><p>Cut him to pieces.</p><p>Take off his head.</p><p>Steal away his eyes–</p><p>No.  No, that's all wrong, that's all wrong, that's a nightmare.  Only a nightmare.  Only a bloody memory of misery.</p><p>In the early hours of morning, just as the world outside turns warm and gold, Tahoumaru wakes and sits up.  The blanket of his futon falls away and he lets it.  He knows he can't quite catch it.  To go from two eyes to one had been disorienting enough, once upon a time.  To go from <i>three</i> to one has been even moreso, in his limited experience thus far.</p><p>The futon he uses now is very different from the one he had as the son of a lord.  It is serviceable and warm, but not fragrant with herbs to encourage restful sleep.  The room he lives in now is likewise a far cry from the estate he once knew.  It is small instead of sprawling, a single room shared by three people with only a hearth in the center for warmth.  His mother, he is sure, dearly misses the braziers full of gently glowing coals servants used to bring them in the winter, but she keeps her complaints locked away inside her heart.  The old doctor they now live with does, too, save for his complaints about Tahoumaru's apparent inability to stop pushing himself when he needs to rest and heal instead.</p><p>There are a lot of those complaints.  He's gotten used to them.</p><p>Beside him, his mother still sleeps, her burned and bandaged arms lying atop her futon where the weight of the blankets won't irritate her still healing skin.  Her face is also marred by burns, the healing skin there textured and red, and every time he sees it and remembers her gently pulling his head into her lap, he thinks again that she is the most beautiful woman he has ever known.</p><p>"Good morning, Mother," he says quietly, so as not to wake her.</p><p>The good doctor has already left, likely gone to gather medicinal herbs or treat minor injuries throughout the village.  They are fortunate to have made their way to this remote part of his father's domain, where nobody knows their faces and nobody asks about Lady Nui's burns or Tahoumaru's missing eye and strange scars.</p><p>Tahoumaru finally rises, folds his futon and puts it away with only minor difficulty, and eats a little of the stew left over in the kettle from the night before for breakfast.  How different his life is now.  How much more – and less – lonely he feels.  How strange to truly rely on himself instead of merely believing he does, as he believed only a few months ago.</p><p>Early autumn's chill brushes against his face when he slides open the door to walk outside. The sharp, cold air makes the scars on his face ache briefly, but the pain subsides after a moment.  Although Tahoumaru has never been one to shy away from pain, there is a certain guilt that clutches at him whenever he thinks about his scars.</p><p>He wonders if his father is out there somewhere, if Daigo survived his last battle.  He wonders if his brother is out there somewhere, too, if Hyakkimaru has taken hold of his latent humanity and his birthright as the rightful heir to the domain.</p><p>Tahoumaru snorts at his own thoughts.  Hyakkimaru? Ruling a domain? Unlikely. His older brother is still more beast than man, and has lived his entire life outside of the confines of courts and politics.  No, if he considers his brother logically, then <i>logically</i> Hyakkimaru is likely still hunting demons.</p><p>All men have their own callings in life.  Tahoumaru has come to the conclusion that his brother's calling is to be a soot-covered savior of the common man.  It isn't a bad calling, as they go, and he still remembers with no small amount of pride the way his brother saved commoners from horrors so many times without the slightest hint of hesitation.</p><p>It does seem a little unfair, though, that once again Hyakkimaru has something Tahoumaru does not.  Tahoumaru thought he knew his calling once.  As a child, it seemed so obvious what he was destined to do.  But now, sitting in the warm sunshine, listening to a waking village, he no longer knows what his calling is.  To be the heir to a domain had seemed so natural once.  Now he has to think carefully to do things as simple as sliding open a door without knocking his hand into it first.</p><p>In a few minutes, he'll heft a pack onto his back and leave the bounds of the village to join the good doctor.  He'll gather herbs and firewood, check fishing traps and small game snares.  He cannot hunt the way he used to, but he can still be <i>useful</i>.  But for the moment, Tahoumaru lets himself enjoy the quiet.</p><p>"Tahoumaru?!"</p><p>The squeak of a familiar voice startles Tahoumaru out of his reverie.  In front of him stands Dororo, as short and disheveled as ever, but strangely alone.</p><p>"My brother is not with you?"</p><p>Dororo squints at him, as if trying to decide if Tahoumaru's question is intended as an insult or something else.  After a moment of silent deliberation, Dororo shrugs and settles into a crouch at Tahoumaru's side.  "He left after the fire. The old monk said he probably has a long way to go on his journey, so he'll be back eventually.  I wasn't expecting to see <i>you</i>, though!"</p><p>"Outside of a grave, you mean?" One corner of Tahoumaru's mouth quirks up.</p><p>At least Dororo has the grace to look embarrassed at that.  "Well...yeah, I guess.  It's just...the fire was huge, you know?"</p><p>"I was inside it."  So yes. He knows.</p><p>Beside him, Dororo fidgets, but says nothing else.  They sit in an awkward silence for a while until Tahoumaru's impatience gets the better of him.</p><p>"My mother lives," he says, gesturing toward the small house.  "But she sleeps at the moment.  You are welcome to go see her so long as you refrain from waking her."</p><p>This is the clear answer to the unasked question.  Dororo jumps up with a barely restrained shout of joy and flies (quietly) inside the house.  Tahoumaru listens for a while, but the sounds from inside the house remain appropriately muffled, so he relaxes again, content that his unexpected visitor will be gentle with his healing mother.</p><p>Eventually, the sun rises high enough in the sky that Tahoumaru can no longer justify his delay.  He steps inside the house to retrieve a foraging basket and pauses briefly when he sees Dororo holding his mother's hand.  There are tears on Dororo's cheeks.</p><p>Lady Nui is awake, and smiles gently at her son.  "Are you leaving now?  I will be in good hands while you are away."</p><p>Tahoumaru shifts uncomfortably but nods at last and picks up the basket he left by the door earlier.  To his pride, he catches it on the first try.  Dororo is hardly a threat and never has been, but Tahoumaru still doesn't want to show weakness in front of anyone aside from his mother or the good doctor.</p><p>"Now," Lady Nui says behind him, addressing Dororo, "tell me all about your journey to get here. I would like very much to hear everything."</p><p>The door slides shut behind him, cutting off Dororo's reply.</p><p>He pushes a branch out of his way, but misjudges the distance and winces when it smacks into his shoulder.  His ability to judge distances grows stronger by the day, but there are times when he still struggles.</p><p>As Hyakkimaru no doubt still struggles.</p><p>Even if Hyakkimaru is on his own journey right now, the fact that Dororo is here surely means that Hyakkimaru must be close behind.  Tahoumaru is sure of that.</p><p>Tahoumaru straightens up and rolls his shoulders back.  Hyakkimaru's calling is to be the soot-covered savior of the common man.  His birthright is that of the lord of a domain.  Tahoumaru smiles, the kernel of an idea beginning to form in his mind.  There are more demons than the ones his brother fights, many of which might be mistaken for being – might even <i>be</i> – fully human.  And his own calling is gone; not taken, but misplaced.</p><p>The good doctor is ahead, as Tahoumaru expected, sorting medicinal mushrooms into a basket.  Tahoumaru lifts his hand in greeting and continues on his way, deeper into the forest.</p><p>He can make a new calling, he decides.  He can heal, as his mother is healing, and he can teach himself to see clearly with one eye, as he taught himself once before.  He can regain control of his father's shattered domain and protect it, as he always hoped to, as he knew he was meant to.  And, when Hyakkimaru eventually returns from his distant travels, he can help prepare his brother for what it means to accept one's birthright.</p><p>He can do all of these things, he thinks to himself as he tugs a persimmon off a dangling branch.  He can be the fire that keeps his family warm on cold nights and Hyakkimaru can be the light that guides them.  The light he would have been had Daigo not sacrificed him in the name of desire, greed, and a dangerously desperate hope.</p><p>Tahoumaru bites into the persimmon, closing his eye and wrinkling his nose with pleasure at its tart-but-sweet flavor.  Yes, he decides.  This will be his new calling.  One made for himself that cannot be taken away from him.  He licks the remaining persimmon juice off his fingers with satisfaction, and is reaching for another when a nearby sound catches his attention.  He turns toward it curiously and – </p><p>"Tahoumaru," says his brother's voice.</p>
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